In what could be a prelude to what might happen if police forces are defunded/disbanded in various cities as is currently being pushed by various violent groups as well as ignorant city council members, Chicago experienced its deadliest day in 60 years on Sunday, May 31st. Chicago saw 18 murders in 24 hours.
The Chicago Sun Times reported,
While Chicago was roiled by another day of protests and looting in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, 18 people were killed Sunday, May 31, making it the single most violent day in Chicago in six decades, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The lab’s data doesn’t go back further than 1961.
From 7 p.m. Friday, May 29, through 11 p.m. Sunday, May 31, 25 people were killed in the city, with another 85 wounded by gunfire, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Apparently it was open season in neighborhoods on the South and West sides of the city. The Rev. Michael Pfleger, leader of St. Sabina Church, said that black folks were being shot down and killed like dogs. And there were no police to be seen.
Until the COVID-19 crisis came along, murders in Chicago had been declining during the Trump administration. There were 764 murders and 12 fatal police-involved shootings in 2016. That had declined to 492 murders and three fatal police-involved shootings in 2019. Undoubtedly this was due to the improving economic prospects of all Americans under the Trump administration. A roaring economy means less crime.
With the riots and wanton looting going on in Chicago, police resources were stretched beyond the ability to safely protect all of the city. Once it became clear to the criminal types that the police could not or would not respond, all hell broke loose.
An article over at Legal Insurrection noted:
In the absence of elected leadership and in the face of police standing by and watching looting in Chicago, Latin gangs are protecting their local businesses and running would be looters out of their neighborhoods. It’s hard to fault them for it, but do we really want street gangs acting as law enforcement?
Because that’s what we can expect in cities that are considering abolishing their police departments—remember, the leftist and anarchist protestors want the police abolished, it’s the political wing, the Democratic Party, that substituted “defund” and is now walking even that back because it’s so vastly unpopular among their own voters.
This was a live experiment into how having no police force would work. It wasn’t pretty. Yet, there still are politicians in some jurisdictions who think doing away with the police would be a good idea. Just how deranged do you have to be not to see the inherent problems in such an idea?